MARINE PROBE OF NAZI SYMBOL ORDERED

Defense secretary demands action in flag controversy

The Marine Corps was ordered Friday to reopen an investigation into Camp Pendleton-based snipers who posed in Afghanistan with a flag adorned with what appears to be a Nazi SS symbol.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the review and told the Marines to take appropriate action against those in the photo. The Marines’ top officer, Commandant James Amos, apologized for the incident in a statement Friday, calling it “regrettable.”

“I want to be clear that the Marine Corps unequivocally does not condone the use of any such symbols to represent our units or Marines,” Amos said.

Amos ordered that commanders investigate the prevalence of the use of SS and other unauthorized symbols within reconnaissance and sniper units. Sniper school curriculum will also be reviewed to ensure it contains prohibitions on the use of the SS symbol, he said.

Marines from the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion who were pictured in the September 2010 photo told investigators they thought the double thunderbolt referred to “scout snipers,” and was not a racist or anti-Semitic insignia.

On Friday afternoon, two former Marines said it’s unlikely the snipers didn’t know the history behind the SS symbol. However, the logo was usurped long ago by the scout snipers and given a different connotation, they said.

Their statements appear to be supported by several photos and comments posted by Marine groups on the social media website Facebook.

“To say that they had no idea, that’s a little uneducated,” said Richard Gilbert, 27, a former scout sniper who served from 2003 to 2008 and is now the student veterans organization president at UC San Diego.

“However, symbols mean different things to different people. When I look at it, I don’t think of the German SS whatsoever. To us, it’s a symbol that represents our way of life, our training, our job skills and what we are as a scout sniper community.”

Another former Marine, 34-year-old Nathaniel Donnelly, said scout snipers were using the SS symbol as far back as 1995.

“Someone who makes it into the scout sniper platoon would know the military history,” said Donnelly, now a veterans coordinator and MBA candidate at San Diego State. “That’s just something we learn. They definitely weren’t ignorant to it. They’re not promoting the German SS. They made it as much their own as the Germans did in World War II.”

Scout snipers are Marines who are specially trained in navigation, long-distance marksmanship, stalking techniques, field skills, communication and surveillance. They require rigorous training, and there is a high attrition rate for those who attempt to qualify.

In November, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force’s inspector general determined that the photo, which was taken in Sangin, Afghanistan, was not racially motivated. Along with the SS symbol, the Marines also posed with guns and an American flag.

The Marines in the photo no longer serve in the unit and were not disciplined. Military officials immediately investigated upon learning of the photograph’s existence, and it surfaced this week on a military weapons company’s blog.